Dog Days

     Have you ever wondered where the phrase, "dog days of summer" came from? The term really started with the ancient Greeks and Romans and refers to the the Dog Star, Sirius. They said "Dog Days" occurred around the time Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. Over the hundreds of years since, the origins of the phrase have gotten lost. I think most people just think of it as the hot days at the end of summer. So hot that dogs just lay around in the shade.

     For our dog Wally, I think everyday is a "Dog Day". 

Maybe a walk in the park.

A picnic in the mountains

Or a nice roll in the grass.

Maybe look for fairies, more likely a rabbit or squirrel.

There's always a cool place to take a nap, whether inside or out.

No matter what you do, don't forget to stop and smell the roses.

Our local park pool celebrates the end of summer swimming and the start of school with it's own "Dog Days". At the end of the last day of swimming, people can bring their dogs to enjoy the pools. Wally is not a big swimmer so we just went to watch the other dogs have fun.

A thought to ponder: "A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class                                      but by who they are inside."

Participating in:Grand Social, Hearth and Soul, Share Your Cup, Our World

The Zen of Gardening

     With the growing season starting to wind down I was thinking about how much I enjoy gardening. If your a gardener you get it, if your not you don't. The IT I'm talking about is in the title of this post. The technical term for Zen is: a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition.  

     Another way to look at it is a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. I think probably most westerners view it as feeling peaceful and relaxed. I know I certainly feel that way when I walk around my garden. But as you know a garden doesn't BECOME all by itself.

     Many people view yard work as just that, work. I consider it a form of creating. To take dirt and make something of beauty. I have numerous posts on my blog about different areas of our yard that we have transformed.  Was it a lot of work, yes, but for me the pleasure I derive from my garden far out weighs the work that went into it. 

     What started out as nothing but dirt and weeds is now an oasis. With over thirty trees where there were none.  Flowers, shrubs, fruits and vegetables to delight all the senses.

     We get lots of compliments on our yard. Everyone marvels at how large it is and how beautiful. But the majority of people say the same thing; "I'd love this yard but it looks like too much work." Yes it is probably more work then most people would like, but it isn't near as much as you might think. My husband has a riding lawn mower which cuts down on mowing time. We use mulch to reduce weeds and retain moisture. We don't work in the garden everyday, depending on the time of year maybe 2 -3 times a week. Probably our busiest time is early spring; cutting back and cleaning beds to get ready for the new growing season.

Spring time in our yard

     Most of our plants are shrubs or perennials so the only planting we do in the spring are some annuals in pots and our vegetable garden.

     And of course at the end of summer what is better then the harvest. 

     Gardening can be good exercise. You can burn 150 to 200 calories in 30 minutes. Volley ball is 93, tennis 260, basketball 258, jogging 300-450. I was never very good at sports so I never became attached to playing any.  I do enjoy swimming (250) and bike riding (150). But mostly I walk (150-200) and garden for exercise. But what I like most about gardening is how I can get lost in the moment of whatever I'm doing; whether it's planting, weeding or pruning. It truly is a togetherness of body and mind.  

     Fall brings the beauty of changing colors but also the work (exercise of raking leaves).  And then winter covers everything with a blanket of snow giving the garden a quite beauty.

     Then it all starts over again when the daffodils tell me it is officially spring.

     If you feel the need to garden, not just work in the yard, then you feel       the zen.

A thought to ponder: "The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul."                                                                                       Alfred Austin

Participating in:Share the Joy, Through My Lens, Nature Notes, Share Your Cup, Grand Social

Summer Memories

       I can't believe it is October already. I never did post anything in September. I guess I was too busy preserving the bounty of our garden and fruit trees. Also working on fixing up a used popup camper we bought, that's a topic for another time. Today I thought I'd go over a few fun happenings during the summer. 
   In June my sister and her husband stopped for a visit on there RV adventure to North Dakota and Canada. We enjoyed seeing them and exploring some of our local scenery.

The brothers-in-law

This is what they were perusing. 

     In July our daughter and family came for a visit. Also her 30th high school reunion. Wow, were did the time go. The cousins were happy to get together again and had a wonderful time hanging out.

Just a simple walk was an enjoyable way for us to spend time with them.

     One of the big events here in the summer is the rodeo and carnival.  So of course we had to take advantage of the activities. Here's a photo of our rodeo princess. 

The kids had fun on the carnival rides.

Also tried their hand at winning a prize. And of course carnival food.

I enjoyed watching the grandkids enjoy themselves and catching the fun with my camera.

     August is the month we like to take the grandson on a little trip. A last hurrah before school starts. This year we took a camping trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. 

The campground had lots of activities for kids.

    Something fun we did while in the area was take a ride on the 1880's steam train which runs between Hill City and Keystone. 

The trip takes an hour one way. They have a recorded commentary that plays during the ride that tells about the history of the train and the area. If you're ever in this neck of the woods be sure to visit and have a fun and informative ride through the Black Hills.

We also paid a visit to Wall Drug in Wall, SD.  The drug store was started in the early 30's and became a must stop for people traveling through the Badlands. They promised free ice water to all travelers passing through. See full story at Wall Drug history. It's a little kitschy but a fun place where you can sill get a free glass of ice water. Here the grandson is riding a "jackalope" and waiting for the T-Rex feeding time. 

     And just to make sure we got a little education in, we visited a small but very nice natural history museum in Hill City. Black Hills Institute of Geological Research

     The summer went by way to fast, but we made many wonderful memories. The best part was having both our children and their families together.  Because of this and also the fact that this August marked our 50th wedding anniversary we had some family pictures taken. Credit for the following three photos goes to Melanie Araas of 3 Willow Design. 

A thought to ponder: "Memories are special moments that tell our story."

Participating in: Grand Social, Seasons, Share Your Cup

A Frog's tale

     When I was a kid my aunt and uncle owned a ranch near Hemet, California. It was a bit of a drive, about two hours, from our house. In the summer my parents would go out on a weekend, leave my brother and I and come back for us the next weekend. We loved it. Not only did we have our three cousins to play with, but also the whole ranch to roam. 

Me at the ranch, about 1950

     We never could roam too far as we were on foot. We were always in hearing of the car horn. My aunt would honk it, 3 shorts and a long, to let us know it was time to come back to the house. One summer we discovered some tadpoles in an old cistern. So we got some containers and collected a bunch.

tadpole (stock photo)

     My mother and father were fine with us bringing them home. They felt it would be a good learning experience to watch them develop into frogs.

     We placed them in a large fish bowl in our kitchen and dutifully fed them. We watched as they developed, getting bigger and growing legs. When the front legs started to develop my mother said we needed to find a place to release them. We knew that we couldn't keep them, there were probably 10 -15 or so. Besides wild things are better in the wild. Time got away from us and one morning my brother and I woke to our Mother screaming. We ran into the kitchen. Our Mom was frantically trying to catch little frogs hopping all over the place. We both started helping her scoop up frogs. It took us a bit but we managed to get them back into the fish bowl, covered so they couldn't jump back out. Needless to say that day they went to the pond area my mother had located, and were released to hop to their hearts content.

     The following photos are of a frog that lived in our backyard pond for awhile in 2007.  We've had frogs come and go over the years but this is the only one that let me take it's photo.

A thought to ponder: "The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is                                            important to the quality of life of humans."  Jim Fowler

Participating in: Grand Social, Share the Joy, Seasons,Amaze Me Monday, Our World Tuesday, Around the World, Share Your Cup